This invention relates to the electric storage battery art, and more particularly, to a new and improved battery package and method of making same for shipping and storing of a wet cell electric storage battery which has been charged and dumped and which contains a residual amount of electrolyte in the battery plates and cells.
The so-called charged and dumped battery has been well known for decades. Such batteries are produced for many purposes, including without limitation, the prevention of spillage of the electrolyte during transit and the increased storage life while the battery is being stored. In the prior art, numerous venting mechanisms have been provided so that the storage battery in a fully charged condition may be stored after removal of the electrolyte for many months without material loss of capacity and without developing excessive pressure. See for example, the patent to J. L. Woodbridge No. 1,816,035 issued July 28, 1931, and the patents to C. C. Wallace, Nos. 1,758,545 and 1,907,911, issued in the 1930s. These patents show that it is old in the art to provide vent caps with holes therein having very small cross sections. The Wallace No. 1,758,545 shows a device which provides a horizontal opening of a very small diameter with respect to its length. The Woodbridge patent provides a duct which has a cross section of a diameter not over 5% of its length. Both patents refer to a capillary duct of minute cross section. More recently, the Sabatino Pat. No. 3,253,963 deals generally with the same problems. These patents show individual vent plugs which are either rather complicated in structure or require a substantial amount of material.
As the art developed, vent plugs were produced in gangs of three; commonly used on automobile batteries today. These vents are intricate in design because of the demands placed on operating batteries in an automobile not only by the electrical system of the automobile, but also by automotive safety engineers and authorities in government. Such modern day gang vents are not for storage purposes, but rather are for operating purposes, and will be distinguished in this application as such.